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This Week's Sermon The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost 05 August 2007 "Defining Life" Luke 12:13-21 LSB Series C Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

Occasionally I receive unsolicited things in the mail from various publishers. Recently I received a little book entitled, "Wealth Conundrum." It is an autobiography of a very wealthy man who realized that his whole life had been driven by greed even though he had been raised in a nominally Christian home. He confessed that he had allowed selfish ambition to interfere with what he knew to be right and that he had been fighting with God. While not agreeing in all things about this man's theological understanding-he had Law and Gospel all mixed up-I do think he had that part right, namely, that he was violating the First Commandment. Wealth was his god. He admitted, "I not only loved money, I wanted to hang onto it. I never gave anything to anybody. Why was I so cheap?" [p. 17]. His life was defined by a sinful desire to get wealth. In an amazing admission, he said that he never heard the words of Jesus about money preached from the pulpit [p. 19]! In a liturgical Church like the Lutheran Church, the Gospel texts about money come up regularly. Maybe this man just never listened when they were read.

We could define this man like the rich man in the parable, namely, selfish and superficial. Selfishness knows no boundaries. One doesn't have to be rich to be selfish. It's a sin that lurks within each one of us from birth. Take a little child who doesn't yet know how to speak but he won't share a toy with another child. From the moment they are born, babies are inherently selfish. They demand all of your time, attention, and care. And things go downhill from there. Poor people can be just as selfish as rich people. Perhaps this is why Agur, in Proverbs 30 prayed for neither poverty nor riches:

". . . give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, "Who is the Lord?" or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God." (Proverbs 30:8-9, ESV)

Some pursue wealth in a religious way, that is, they put wealth in the place of God and worship and serve it as God alone demands. The rapper 50 Cent has a best-selling album with this revealing title, "Get Rich or Die Tryin'." By all accounts he has accumulated a great deal of wealth by degrading other people with his lyrics [I can't bring myself to call these items "music"!]. Talking about killing other people and treating women like Michael Vick treats dogs has nothing noble about it. 50 Cent and those like him should be despised and avoided. People should do nothing to help him and others like him to get the wealth he wants.

Two weeks ago I mentioned in the sermon that sometimes serendipitous things happen when writing sermons, or maybe I am just being more observant, but on 26 July Reuters News published a list of the highest-paid television stars in the United States. The top five were entertainers, whom I can honestly say-perhaps out of a sense of sinful pride-I never watch: Oprah Winfrey at $260 million last year; Simon Cowell at $45 million, Judge Judy Sheindlin at $30 million, Katie Couric at $15 million, and actor Zach Braff at $6.3 million. The story went on to list how much some actors and actresses get per episode as well as those who are daytime luminaries and news anchors. This says nothing about many professional athletes whose annual earnings certainly keep pace and who often demand more just because their egos crave it. Jesus warns us in this parable about such constant striving for riches as God spoke to the rich man:

". . . . 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?'" (Luke 12:20, ESV)

Whether we realize it or not, riches are fleeting. Ten years ago F. W. Woolworth closed the last 400 of its "five and ten cent" stores. After 117 years as the flagship retailer of downtown America, Woolworth went belly-up. Other department stores such as Macy's and Filene's adjusted. Americans had moved to the suburbs and when 1962 rolled around, K Mart, Target, and Wal-Mart began business. Only the older people here this morning can remember Woolworth. A majority of you know the latter three quite well. The point is, wealth is often very fleeting and cannot be kept. Life is does not consist in ever-expanding wealth.

Our Old Testament reading this morning tells you that those who receive your wealth when you die might be imbeciles and squander it all [Eccl. 2.18-19]. When you die you indeed leave it all behind. The question which caused this whole discussion was from the man who wanted Jesus to be a judge over an inheritance. Jesus issued a sharp warning to this man and to us all:

"Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." (Luke 12:15, ESV)

Perhaps we can state it another way. Striving after possessions, wealth, and notoriety seems to be the chief occupation of our age here in America. From parents who sue schools because their daughters don't make the cheerleading squad and sons who don't make the basketball team to the Hollywood notorious to cry-baby athletes who demand millions of dollars to play a game, it all finally settles in as narcissism. Narcissism might be defined as the worship of created things, especially oneself. Surely life must consist of more than that to be meaningful. Surely life must find its true value outside of oneself, outside of perishable things. While the writer of Ecclesiastes uses the word "vanity" in his work, it can also be translated as "futility." Chasing after wisdom, work, pleasure, and wealth bring satisfaction for a time, but death puts an end to that, sometimes abruptly. Such striving is futility, yet many don't get it.

In what, then, does life truly consist? In the things of God, Jesus says, but more specifically, in being "rich toward God." But just what does Jesus mean? What do his words get at? Is it something that we do? Not at all, and this is the mistake that many make, including the author of the book I mentioned at the beginning. Rather it is something that God does in us.

To be rich toward God is to believe that God is the giver of all things, including life and salvation. That might be the biggest hurdle of all for many people because they honestly believe that their wealth is the result of their efforts. To a certain extent that is true, but it cannot alone explain why some become wealthy and some don't. Moses reminds us:

"You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth. . . ." (Deuteronomy 8:18, ESV)

The second danger of riches is that we forget the neighbor. In spite of our vows to be generous to others, we renege on our promises. Do you remember the confession of the man who wrote the book? "I never gave anything to anybody. Why was I so cheap?" Indeed, he was just like a rich man in another parable, the Rich Man and Lazarus. The rich man indulged himself in every way imaginable while poor, miserably clothed, sick, and starving Lazarus lay at this man's gate. The only living beings to pay attention to Lazarus were the dogs who licked his sores. This rich man was so consumed with himself-we call it selfishness, narcissism-that he never noticed the needy man at his gate. The whole Second Table of the Law is now broken, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" [Matthew 22.39].

To show that one believes that God is the giver of all things is rather difficult, even though we pray, "Give us this day our daily bread" in the Our Father. The words often ring hollow on both counts: first, as they pertain to the Giver of all good things and second, as they pertain to sharing with others in need the gifts we have received. But this is the consistent teaching of Jesus throughout the Gospels. Indeed, it is the consistent teaching of all of God's Word.

Only because of Jesus Christ and what he has done in his life, suffering, and death do we receive anything from God that is good. We confess over and over again, "I a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto You all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended You and justly deserved Your temporal and eternal punishment." There can be no appeal to one's goodness for there isn't any. In fact, we confess that we deserve only "temporal and eternal punishment." It is only for the sake of God's boundless mercy and for "the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death" of God's own beloved Son that we have any grace at all. Behind all this stands the great Gospel of grace which proclaims that forgiveness is bestowed as God's free gift in Jesus Christ. On his deathbed Luther said, "We are all beggars, that is sure."

Accountability is coming for every person, just as it was for this rich man. "This night your soul is required of you . . ." None of us escapes accountability. God will ask each one of you whether his gifts were received through faith or abused by the arrogant assumption that God's gifts were yours by your own efforts and were therefore used only as you saw fit. The question will be whether or not you acted foolishly or wisely. That question is what we can call an "open question," that is, the answer is not yet in and will not be until the stewardship of your life is finally called up by God himself.

Dear friends, you have received freely of the gifts of God, not only his material gifts, but especially his best gifts in Christ, his true riches. Again today you are on the receiving end as you remember your Baptism, as you are absolved in Holy Absolution, and especially in the Blessed Sacrament. God has made you rich in his things whether you have a large bank account or whether it is stretched very thin! He has promised to supply your every need so that you do not have to worry about what you shall eat or drink or put on. Your life consists in much more than the abundance of your possessions. It consists in Christ and what he has done for you. Listen again to the Apostle Paul in today's Epistle:

"If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3:1-4, ESV)

Repent then, of your covetousness, your selfishness, your sinful desire to get rich! Hear Christ's Absolution again in the Holy Supper. As you know and believe this, I trust that, by God's grace, you will also act responsibly with regard to your possessions and use them to the glory of God and the welfare of your neighbor. Then your life will have been properly defined.